Wednesday, March 21, 2007

A walk to remember

Flashback to four years ago: Friday, March 21, 2003.

It was the last day the second semester of our second year in Ateneo. Notably, there was the final exam in Math that went especially well, considering my tendency to not do well. Plus, it was the last ever Math exam I would ever have to take, and that alone should be reason enough to celebrate. Bit and Raf and I had the evening free, so we set out to commemorate the last day of the school year. We took a taxi out to The Podium, the high-end and posh complement to Megamall.

High-end and posh means a lot of showroom stores with stuff that's way too expensive to consider. We walk around the place, just bewildered at how rich and glitzy it all is. We check what movies are showing... Tears of the Sun on both screens, but none of us are enthusiastic about watching it.

We decided to take a chance and eat at a restaurant called Burgoo, even though none of us knew what to expect. But once we looked at the menu, we regretted stepping into that place, because even the cheap meals cost enough to put a painful dent in a student's wallet. Food arrives, I had some kind of big meat thing with mashed potatoes and a half-cob of corn. It was a wonderful meal... but... it cost so much money. :/

Despite the hugely expensive dinner, we still got drinks from Starbucks afterwards. Maybe we just didn't want to leave The Podium without doing anything with our money besides dinner. I had a large green tea frappuccino.

Waiting outside The Podium at 10PM, it was taking really long to get a taxi to get us back to the dorm at Ateneo. I suggested that we just start walking in the direction of Ateneo, and then get a taxi if ever one happens to come our way. After all, then we wouldn't be wasting our time waiting, and every step we take shaves a little bit off of the taxi fare we would pay.

We walk for 10 minutes... then 20 minutes... then 30 minutes... and still no taxi. We walked past abandoned buildings, overpasses, mansions. Eventually it reached the point that we said to ourselves "Hey, we've walked this far already, why not go the whole distance?". Walking late at night from Ortigasto Ateneo is no small feat, as anyone familiar with Metro Manila would attest. A taxi would have cost us 100 pesos-- that's just 33 pesos for each of us. But there's just something about walking all the way. It strikes a cool combination of crazy and awesome that makes the bragging rights too tempting to resist.

We only stop once along the way, at a gas station where we buy some drinks and empty our bladders. We get back to the dorm at around 1AM, a traveling time of approximately 3 hours. Sweaty, tired, and with horribly sore feet. But at least we have a story we could tell people for years to come.

The reason I remember the actual date of this is that I recall texting a friend happy birthday during the walk. People usually react to this story with more horror than awe, but I'm proud nonetheless. ^_^